Some athletes, entertainers and CEOs receive “astronomical salaries,” as you well know…
They take “all they can get” and use it for “their own personal interests and life styles”…and why wouldn’t they?
They actually seem to set “an example” for our culture which spends so much “to entertain themselves” when countless millions in the world are hungry, homeless, and lost…
“Our attitude toward money” and how “we use it” or even the “TIME” that we have been given is a barometer of our spiritual state.
It reveals whether we are foolishly thinking “only of the present” or astutely looking “to eternity.
What is the purpose of both our time and our money?
Jesus told a real “disturbing story” about “a money manager” who knew he would soon be fired because he had wasted his employer’s funds.
So the steward went to the debtors and issued a “paid in full” receipt for a partial payment.
This put him in their good graces so that when he lost his job he could go to them for help and not have to go on “public welfare.” Food stamps was obviously not his thing…
Interestingly, “this manager” appears to win the respect of his master by his “shrewd” and cunning actions.
When it comes “to business” a “shrewd businessman or woman” is considered to be practical, hardheaded and intelligent. They can be perceptive, witty and clever. Calculating and canny are “other words” that come to mind. These “creative folks” tend to be observant and very astute.
The story, as told by Jesus illustrates the wisdom of spending our time or our money with “eternity in view”…
In Jesus’ day managers or stewards (as they were sometimes called) were often hired by very wealthy people to care for “the finances of their estates.”
Such a managers or stewards would be comparable to a “modern-day financial planner or trustee” who controls the “finances of an estate” for the purpose of making more money “for that estate.”
Shrewd individuals were sometimes considered to be underhanded.
The money did not belong to the manager but was “his to use” for the estate.
The steward was squandering his boss’s possessions either by “spending his master’s money extravagantly” or “foolishly mismanaging his resources.”
Both are grounds for termination.
The rich man viewed his manager’s irresponsibility and fired him. The estate owner then asks the estate manager for “his final accounting” – “for all his dealings.”
This is a “CRISIS moment.” A CRISIS brought on by his OWN making. No one knows exactly what he did – except for his MASTER.
Perhaps, he simply reduced the bills by subtracting his own commission as financial manager, if that was the case, he did nothing wrong.
If he was eliminating the interest portion, he would have NOT been considered dishonest. The Bible actually speaks against the charging of interest.
If he permitted falsification of the amounts owed his master – that clearly would have been “dishonest.”
So, it depends what he was actually doing by changing the payments owed.
Jesus certainly wasn’t advocating embezzlement or justifying crooked behavior. What he is teaching is that – at least this crook was thinking about the future and making decisions in the… present that would help him out in the future. He had his eye on the prize.
Jesus again “advises us” about the wisdom of spending or investing money or our time … with “eternity in view.”
Remember those athletes, entertainers and CEOs…they are not overly concerned with the hungry, the homeless and the lost…what about YOU? What about “the widow and the orphan” and “the poor” who are always in our midst…what about “the lonely, the frightened and the broken?” We have a whole world of people looking for “a kind word” or “a kind deed” or just “another kind human being…” IS THAT YOU?
Amen.